Many in Market Harborough will remember Ian Parry from his community work with the Rotary Club and over 40 years of productions at the Harborough Theatre as actor or director, often with his wife Queenie. But he has always enjoyed writing too, and has now released his first book, The Scotch Play.

Inspired by the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's First Folio, it tells of Shakespeare's precarious working relationship with the new king, James, and the high cost of preserving a creative legacy.

“I felt Shakespeare's colleagues, Heminge and Condell, were unsung heroes,” says Ian. “Without them collecting and publishing his works, Shakespeare would hardly be remembered now.”

Ian was joined in the project by daughter Lynn Robertson Hay, a Writers' Guild Award winner with one of her theatre plays, who has written for BBC1's Doctors and recently entered the Whoniverse writing a very different Doctor for Big Finish. The Scotch Play is Lynn's fourth book, along with her 'Young Testament' series: full length retellings of the Jesus story, with the children as the main characters (Joseph's Boy being the Christmas one).

Next up for Lynn is the cinema release of her first feature film in January – Brave The Dark, starring Jared Harris – while Ian has more scripts to polish.

Harborough man releases book in his nineties